Currently, a metal sulfide concentrate is generally smelted with a way of pyrometallurgy, that is, a process in which sulfur and iron in the metal sulfide concentrate are removed by reacting them with oxygen to finally obtain metals, in particular with respect to the pyrometallurgy on metals such as copper, nickel.
The pyrometallurgical process is broadly classified into two categories: settling tank smelting and space smelting, among which the space suspension smelting in substance refers to that an oxidization reaction is completed instantaneously (within 2˜3 seconds) by using the huge surface area of the dried powdery sulfide minerals to allow sufficient binding of the material particles (that is the dried powdery sulfide minerals) to oxygen. The main core process employed in the space suspension smelting is a direct current jet technique which utilizes a combined action of wind in central distribution and wind in a vertical process to achieve a gas-solid contact reaction; however, due to the influence of the direct current properties in the aforementioned process, there would be malignant situations such as low oxygen availability, high smoke rate, severe erosion corrosion on furnace liners, raw material pile accumulation of concentrates within the furnace without any reaction, etc., during the production.
In order to address the above problems, a swirl injection technique has further developed in recent years, in which gas is spirally flowed to achieve a contact reaction with material particles; however, the working effectiveness thereof is still not ideal, and it cannot meet the development trend of smelting techniques: a high feeding amount, high load, high oxygen concentration and high working rate (“Four High” for short).
Therefore, how to further improve the smelting effect on copper sulfide has become a problem that currently and urgently needs to be solved for those skilled in the art.